Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai is on the cusp of a momentous year, namely, the 75th year of its existence. The platinum jubilee conference will be devoted to challenging the current dogmas and to debate the ‘currently entrenched versus contrarian viewpoints’ in cancer research and treatment. The conference will be held at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai and the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel has agreed to be our official hospitality partners from the 26th to 28th of February 2016.

It is likely to be a landmark conference, the first of its kind. Indeed, the central idea for the conference came from surveying the current landscape of cancer research and treatment and the disappointments that it has brought us. The last decade has been particularly frustrating as we have realized that the hype generated from molecular and genetic ‘breakthroughs’ are translating neither into a meaningful understanding of the malignant process nor to a clinically relevant relief to our patients. In our desperate quest to prove our scientific approach to be right, we are even modifying our time-tested methodologies of clinical research, and getting increasingly excited by meaningless gains of “progression free survival” by a few months. A 2%-3% improvement in overall survival has become the outer limit of our intellectual expectation.

The Platinum Jubilee conference will be devoted to challenging the current dogmas and to debate the ‘currently entrenched versus contrarian viewpoints’ in cancer research and treatment. Key international speakers and participants will deliberate on these issues critically over 3 days of the conference on carefully chosen themes in the form of symposia, debates and special lectures. Some of the emerging messages may lead to potentially paradigm shifting approaches to how we perceive and treat cancer. We are sure that the conference will be an academic feast and would appeal to all scientists, clinicians and health care professional involved in researching and treating cancer.

The Lancet Oncology, the US NCI and AACR have agreed to be partners.

Nicolas ANDRE, from MGHI has been invited to talk about the mechanism of action of chemotherapy.

Lear more about the programm and faculty memebers by clicking here.

Program

A Basic and Translational science • Has the molecular revolution reached the bedside? • How much of genomic data has translated into clinical practice? • Targeted therapy has failed our patients (debate) • Precision medicine is an empty slogan (debate)

B New ideas in clinical oncology • Therapeutic strategies to harness the peri-operative window •Biological principles of metronomic therapy •Targeting copper to treat breast cancer •Novel PI3 kinase inhibitor: from bench to bedside

C therapy resistance •Cancer as an infectious disease caused by dead-cell chromatin •Clinical implications of apoptotic circulating tumour cells •Is the metastatic tumour genetically and histologically similar to the primary? •Dead cell chromatin, tumour heterogeneity and therapy resistance

D Cancer data analysis •Omics and big data sets: out of control? •How relevant are the randomized controlled clinical trials in clinical practice?

E Public health and cancer statistics •Harms of cancer screening •Holistic approach to cancer management and prevention •Challenges of HPV vaccination

F The lure of technology •Harnessing technology for cancer treatment, who benefits? •The politics and economics of novel technologies •Advanced technologies and global cancer outcome

G Hospital day oration and special lectures •Technological challenge, stagnation and decline in the 21st century •Cancer research in need of a scientific revolution •Thinking Outside the Box in Cancer Research: Perspectives from the US NCI •Fractal geometry in oncogenesis

H Top abstracts session

I Grand discussion •A 90 minute session highlighting the key messages from various talks and discussions during the conference and also deliberate a possible cancer agenda for the future. Discussants will include senior faculty, a few key note speakers and international policy makers.

J Public forum on cancer •A 2 hour interaction between top experts and the public